nuncio

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

n. A papal ambassador or representative.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

n. Ecclesiastic title of a permanent diplomatic representative of the Roman Catholic Church to a sovereign state or international organisation, accorded rank equivalent to an accredited ambassador, and may also be given additional privileges including recognition as Dean in a country's diplomatic corps.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

n. A messenger.

n. The permanent official representative of the pope at a foreign court or seat of government. Distinguished from a legate a latere, whose mission is temporary in its nature, or for some special purpose. Nuncios are of higher rank than internuncios.

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

n. A messenger; one who brings intelligence.

n. Specifically A papal messenger; a permanent diplomatic agent of the first rank, representing the Pope at the capital of a country entitled to that distinction.

“We are occupied,” wrote a papal nuncio in 1523, in preparing for “the general war against the Turk,” as well as for “war against the nefarious Martin Luther, who is a greater evil to Christendom than the Turk.”

Scicluna stressed that ordinary faithful have not only the right but the duty to inform the Vatican, via the papal nuncio or ambassador in each country, when a situation of abuse is affecting the life of the diocese.

In Washington, after he arrived as nuncio, he told CNS that in his travels as a papal diplomat, it was "difficult to find a part of the world where the charity of U.S. Catholics did not reach the poor or sick people."